PBS looks inward for new president
As it looks to a future of digital expansion and financial challenges, PBS has chosen an insider with a background in fund-raising as its new president.
Paula A. Kerger, a top executive at New York public television stations WNET and WLIW, will be the public broadcasting service's sixth president and CEO, the PBS board announced yesterday.
Kerger's election marks a change for PBS, which six years ago tapped Pat Mitchell, a high-profile former TV anchor and programming executive who had most recently worked for CNN. Mitchell is leaving PBS to helm the Museum of Television and Radio.
Over her controversial tenure, Mitchell was praised for her public advocacy and for lending support to some new programming. But she was criticized at times for caving to outside pressure. In 2004, Mitchell pulled an episode of the children's show ''Postcards From Buster" that featured a lesbian couple after complaints from the US secretary of education.
Kerger, 48, will take over PBS at a time of uncertainty. Last summer, the public broadcasting system faced a congressional funding crisis, though proposed budget cuts were later restored. The system also endured criticism from then-Corporation for Public Broadcasting chairman Kenneth Tomlinson, who ordered the creation of a conservative show and discussed hiring choices with White House aide Karl Rove.
Tomlinson quit the agency's board in November, after an internal probe found he acted improperly. Still, some observers say PBS's critics are trained on its budget, just as competition from commercial TV has never been stronger.
Kerger ''should get combat pay. This is a thankless job," said Jeffrey Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy, a Washington-based advocacy group. ''You're hammered from the left and the right. People that control your purse strings are hostile at best."
And a PBS president has limited power, he said, since the system is owned and operated by 348 public television stations. But Kerger told the Associated Press yesterday that PBS's decentralized system is an asset.
''What makes it a complicated system -- the fact that it's all these local stations -- is its great strength," she said. ''In an era when there are almost no remaining locally owned and operated broadcast media . . . a strong public broadcasting system is critically important." She was unavailable for further comment.
Chester said Kerger's main tasks will be to expand PBS's fund-raising options and seek out creative talent. Otherwise, he said, ''the entire system could become increasingly irrelevant in the broadband, new media era."
Kerger's public television experience positions her well, said Henry Becton Jr., president of Boston PBS affiliate WGBH, which produces ''Postcards From Buster" as well as ''
In New York, Kerger oversaw public broadcasting's biggest-ever capital campaign, Becton said. And in recent years, she worked with WGBH to create two new digital channels: ''Create," which repackages lifestyle programs from WGBH and WNET, and ''World," filled with culture, science, and public affairs shows.
Those channels could be models for a future PBS, which should make use of streaming broadband and video, said Becton, who is pleased with Kerger's selection.
''I was hoping for someone with great knowledge of the system," said Becton. ''The new president has got to work quickly with the system to reach agreement on this new strategy and this new menu of services."
But if public television is to thrive, Chester said, Kerger might need a more radical programming strategy -- and to look beyond the large producing stations.
''PBS golden oldies is not going to transform the network's fortunes," Chester said. ''She has to come up with refreshing, new, challenging, vibrant ideas to make noncommercial television relevant. If they just continue to program to the over-60 crowd, then eventually the entire network and its viewers will go dark."
